Module Overview: Magical Import

Navigate to Data Management > Magical Import. 

Select the database and the record type in the top menu. Then choose the CSV file that you would like to import.

Select a template if you or someone on your team has already saved one that can handle importing from the same source.

After uploading your CSV data into Insycle, Step 1 will populate with a column for each field in the CSV. Insycle automatically looks for the matching CRM fields and maps them for you. You'll need to manually map any fields it can't figure out.

Next, tell Insycle how to use the data on a field-by-field basis by selecting the Import Mode for each column—update existing records, create new records, or do both depending on what's in your CRM data.

There are four Import Modes:

• Update: Import CSV values into your CRM, overwriting existing CRM values (will skip empty CSV values).
• Fill: Import CSV values only when there is no existing value in CRM (will not overwrite existing CRM values).
• Overwrite: Import CSV values, including empty CSV values, into your CRM (will overwrite existing CRM values).
• Append: Add CSV values to existing values in your CRM. For example, append notes from a CSV to existing notes, or add values on multi-select fields (checkboxes or picklists).

Insycle uses an Identity Field to compare the CSV to your CRM data and identify existing records for the same entity. Identity Fields are data points that would only belong to a single record—such as email address, phone number, street address, or ID number. For companies, it could also be company name, or company domain. No matter what action you want to take, you must choose an Identity Field.

There are four actions to choose from: 

Use the Import feature to enrich existing records or create net new records from data you have in a CSV (without adding duplicates). Learn more about importing from a CSV.

Use the Compare feature to:

• Understand how many contacts from a list are net-new versus already existing in your CRM.
• Preview how your CSV import would change data for existing records.
• Check unsubscribes against your CRM database.

Learn more about using Magical Import to compare CSV data to existing records in your CRM.

Use the Delete feature when you have a CSV containing records you know need to be deleted. You can match the CSV rows to CRM records and easily delete the data in bulk.

Learn more about using a CSV to specify records to delete from your CRM.

Use the Export feature to extract values from your CRM and create a new CSV report comparing the rows in your import CSV to the existing data from your CRM. (This is a read-only operation.)

Learn more about exporting CRM data for CSV comparison or enrichment.

Under Step 3, you can make bulk changes to the CSV data or filter out rows before it is uploaded to your CRM. The options selected and applied here will be reflected in the table view of the data in Step 1, not done directly in your CRM.

On the Functions tab, you can select fields, formatting and transformation changes to apply to the field data. You could clean up, format, add or remove text, copy values to other fields, or make other updates. These are the same functions found in the Transform Data module which you can learn more about in this blog post.

Using the Find & Replace tab, you can bulk update values in the Step 1 table so they are ready to go when you import. This saves you from needing to go back and edit the original CSV and setting it up in Insycle again.

The Filter tab allows you to limit which rows from your CSV are imported based on criteria you define. You may want to do this to import in segments that are handled differently, or if there are just some junk rows you don't want to import.

Add Records to Salesforce Campaigns

When importing Salesforce contacts, the Campaign tab will appear. From here you can add the imported contacts to an exisitng campaign from Salesforce.

Type to search campaigns, then the Show link will let you open the campaign in Salesforce for a preview.

Add Records to HubSpot Lists

When importing HubSpot contacts, the List tab will appear. From here you can add the imported contacts to a new or exisitng list.

Type to search existing lists in HubSpot or use the button to Create a new list. If selecting an existing list, the Show link will let you open the list in HubSpot for a preview.

Make Bulk Changes to a Field 

On the Bulk Update tab, you can add a value into CRM fields even if you don't have the field in the CSV. This will add the same value for all the imported records.

Associate/Link Imported Rows to Records in Your CRM

The Associate tab (this may also be called the Link tab, depending on the naming convention in your CRM) allows you to create relationships between CSV records and existing records in your database when you import.

Learn more about creating relationships when importing.

Set Format for Dates Tied to Records

The Date Format tab allows you to reformat dates before the data is imported into your CRM.

Learn more about reformatting dates before the data is imported into your CRM.

By default, Insycle will attempt to import all of your CSV data into your database. If there are only a few records you want to apply the association to, return to the table under Step 1 and check the boxes beside the select records. Leave the checkboxes blank to import all of the records.

Note that changes are applied to your CRM immediately, there is no preview step. To import, click the Import [X] Contacts button under Step 5.

After the import runs, the Import Result breaks down the import information—how many records you tried to import and how many succeeded, failed, were updated, deleted, or unmodified. Click the Run ID to open a CSV record of the import.

A record of these changes can be found anytime in the Activity Tracker.

After you've seen the results in the CRM and are satisfied with how the import runs, you can save all of the configurations as a template to use each time you import a CSV with the same source and format. With a template, all of your settings are saved including field mapping, actions, functions etc., so you will have minimal work for future imports.

Return to the Template menu at the top of the page and click the disk icon to save this as a new template, making sure to give it an informative name.

Insycle uses Identity Fields to compare your CSV to your CRM data. Identity fields must be "unique identifiers." These are data points that could only belong to a single contact—such as email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, or ID numbers.

Additionally, when using an email field, Insycle will automatically cross-reference any additional email fields in the records for a match. If using a domain field, Insycle will check additional domain fields. 

Using the "Update Existing and Create Net New" setting, Insycle will fail to match many records and instead will create a new record.

If you use the "Only Update Existing" setting with multiple Identity Fields, you will identify far fewer existing records and much of your CSV data will not be imported, because Insycle will not be able to find the correct record to update.

It is typically best to use a single identity field.

Insycle attempts to match date value using multiple formats in the following order:

1. Date time with timezone: 2018-07-19T23:25:45.671-0400
2. Date time in UTC timezone: 2018-07-19T10:15:30Z 
3. YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
4. Date (YYYY-MM-DD): 2018-07-19 or 2018/07/09
5. Date (M-D-YYYY): 07-19-2018 or 7/19/2018

All the above formats work with and without the - or / symbols.

Learn more about reformatting dates before the data is imported into your CRM.

With the Activity Tracker, you have a complete audit trail and history of changes made through Insycle. At any time you can download a CSV report that lets you see all of the changes that were made during an import operation.

Navigate to Operations > Activity Tracker, enter "import" to search by the module, or look for a template name, then click the Run ID for the operation.

If there are issues with a CSV row, the red warning icon will be shown on the left side of the record. Records that have errors in them will not be imported.

To learn what the problem is and determine steps to resolve it, hover over the red exclamation mark—an explanation of the error will display. 

If a field in your CRM includes dropdown values and the data included in your CSV does not match, the row will display an "Invalid picklist value" error. This value needs to be changed to match the dropdown options used in your CRM.

You can make quick fixes to the import data directly in Insycle by hovering over a value and clicking the pencil icon.

If a record in your CSV is not being matched to a CRM record and you know that it should be, there are several potential causes:

The Identity Field you chose does not match between the CSV and CRM

Have a look at the data in your CRM using the Grid Edit module, adding columns to the layout so you can explore the fields and values. Then compare this against the columns and values that are in your CSV to find a reliable, but unique field that match between the two sources. 

You are using too many Identity Fields

You can select more than one identity field, however, Insycle will check all the fields to match. If one single field does not match, the corresponding matching CRM record will not be identified and will not be deleted. In most cases, it is best to use a single Identity Field.

Your Identity Field choice is too broad

Insycle uses Identity Fields to compare your CSV to your CRM data. If you're using a field that is not truly unique as an Identity Field, it's likely that Insycle won't be able to identify one single record as a match. For instance, there could be many people with the First Name, "John" in your CRM. This is why uniqueness is key.

When selecting your Identity Field, make sure it is truly a "unique identifier." These are data points that would only belong to a single record—such as email address, phone number, street address, or ID number. For companies, it could also be company name, or company domain.

There is a syncing issue

To refresh the data in Insycle, navigate to Settings > Sync Status, select the account, and click the Refresh Accounts List button. Alternatively, you could log out of Insycle and then log back in.

For help re-syncing a specific field, contact support.

If you have set up formatting or standardization functions in Step 3, but aren't seeing those changes reflected after importing your data, make sure that you click the Apply button.

You must apply these updates to your CSV data before importing it into your CRM. You will see these changes reflected in the data under Step 1.

Yes, Insycle will automatically map fields that it is able to identify. However, Insycle may not be able to map every field. When it cannot map a field, a notification will appear.

Yes, you can easily append data to existing data by selecting the Append Import Mode for any field in Step 1.

Yes, Insycle provides many functions that can clean, format, and standardize data from your CSV before it's imported into your database.

Yes, Insycle allows you to associate records while importing data from a CSV in Step 4, using the Associate or Link tab. (The tab label may vary depending on the CRM.)

Yes, Insycle allows you to compare the CSV to existing data in your CRM records. The Compare (Preview) tab under Step 2 provides a simple CSV report showing the values from your original CSV next to the values currently in your CRM.

To learn more, see the Compare CSV Data to Existing Records In Your CRM article.

Yes, the Magical Import module can handle up to 100k rows for each CSV import. Keep in mind that the more rows and fields you have in your CSV, the slower the import process will be. If you run into this issue, try breaking the CSV in half, or into segments, and remove any extraneous fields.